Daily Business Report-Sept. 27, 2013
Concepts for the I.D.E.A. District in East Village of Downtown San Diego
Low Enterprises and I.D.E.A. Partners
Chosen to Develop Downtown City Block
The San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees has adopted a long-term ground lease in the upper East Village for a full city block that will be developed into a mixed-use development in the I.D.E.A. District. As part of the 99-year lease, Lowe Enterprises Inc. and I.D.E.A. Partners LLC will develop the block bounded by E, F, Park, and 13th streets. The rent paid to the district will be $56,625 per month.
Lowe and I.D.E.A. Partners’ proposal for the 1.37-acre site is to create an urban mixed-use project with office space, apartments designed to appeal to young urban professionals, and street-level shops and restaurants that will attract residents, employees, and the East Village neighborhood.
The project is seen as a catalyst for the 95-acre I.D.E.A. District (Innovation+Design+Education+Arts).
The district previously determined the surplus property is no longer needed for educational use and sought bids from potential developers. Lowe and I.D.E.A. Partners were selected in February. As part of the lease, phased-in rent of $8,493.75 per month will be paid to the district during the first year of the pre-construction period. If the pre-construction period is more than one year, the district will receive $14,156.25 per month.
San Diego Economy Gains Strength
The USD Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators for San Diego County rose 0.4 percent in August. The advance was led by big gains in consumer confidence and the outlook for the national economy. There was also a small gain in local stock prices. These gains outweighed small declines in building permits, initial claims for unemployment insurance, and help wanted advertising to push the USD Index to its 12th straight gain and 21st in 22 months.
August’s gain means that the forecast remains for positive growth in the local economy in the year ahead. However, there are some areas of concern, according to associate professor Alan Gin, author of the index: “The breadth of the advance left something to be desired. Only three of the six components were up, the worst performance on that front since the Index declined last August. Both labor market variables were down for the first time in nearly three years. As a result, job growth has slowed considerably. Year-over-year job growth comparisons have weakened since the beginning of the year, with the gain in August being only 14,800. One big potential problem at this time is the political turmoil over shutting down the government and/or extending the debt ceiling. Failure to do the latter in particular could trigger a financial crisis that would threaten to derail a fragile recovery, and the local economy is unlikely to be able to avoid the fallout from that.”
August’s increase puts the USD Index of Leading Economic Indicators for the county at 127.9, up from July’s revised value of 127.4.
City Rehires Lobbying Firms
Two lobbying firms whose contracts former Mayor Bob Filner ended were rehired by the city to nurture San Diego friendly legislation at the state and federal levels, interim Mayor Todd Gloria said Thursday. Patton Boggs LLP will handle San Diego interests in Washington, D.C., and Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates will work primarily in Sacramento, Gloria said. “We need to make sure someone is advocating for San Diego’s interests on the national and the state level,” Gloria said. “We haven’t had this representation for months due to the actions of the previous mayor, a situation that was obviously unacceptable given that our city is directly impacted by the actions of our federal and state governments.”
Both contracts will run through July 1, or until bidding for the work is complete. The contract for Patton Boggs includes a $135,000 cap, and Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates’ deal was capped at $126,000, according to Gloria. — City News Service report
More Military Cutbacks to be Felt in San Diego’s Pocketbook
The fifth annual military economic impact study by the Fermanian Business and Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University finds that defense spending will likely continue to drop. The review of the military’s economic impact in San Diego shows the military spends nearly $25 billion annually here and that is responsible for creating 300,000 jobs. The military generates about a fifth of the region’s economic activity, according to the report, but defense budgets are shrinking.
“In 2014, we’re likely to see some reductions in personnel counts, some reductions in contracts, and cutbacks in research grants,” said Lynn Reaser, an economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “We still will see increases in payments for veterans and retirees, but overall defense spending and jobs linked to the military will be down.”
The Navy’s 53 ships home-ported here bring $4 billion into the region, according to the report; an aircraft carrier alone generates an economic impact of half-a-billion dollars. Admiral Patrick Lorge, commander of Navy Region Southwest, said defense budgets are tightening, but not drastically.
“I don’t know the exact number, the budget guys back in D.C. know that. It’ll be somewhat less than what we’re doing now, but not something we haven’t seen in the recent past,” said Lorge.
Some budget-cutting moves will actually help the local economy. The Navy is stationing more of its fleet in the Pacific theater and San Diego is poised to take a leadership role in the development of unmanned military vehicles.
Idaho Law Firm Opens Carlsbad Office
CARLSBAD — Evans Keane LLP, a Boise, Idaho-based business law firm, announced that Madeline Cahill and Larry Campitiello have joined the firm as partners. Cahill, who focuses her practice in employment, commercial real estate and corporate law, is based in the firm’s Boise office and serves as Evans Keane’s West Coast partner. Cahill will divide her time between Boise and the firm’s new Carlsbad office located at 5740 Fleet St., Suite 140. Campitiello, who focuses his practice on commercial, employment and real estate litigation and business transactions, is based in the firm’s Carlsbad office.
View Time-Lapse Movie of New Library Construction
Doors will open tomorrow for a celebration ceremony and public dedication at the new San Diego Central Library. EarthCam is marking the occasion with the launching of a new construction time-lapse movie, highlighting progress from April 2011, to July 2013. Turner Construction Co. selected EarthCam’s 12 MegapixelCam construction camera to document progress for the new library in high-definition imagery for detailed archival record and time-lapse photography. For 27 months, the professional webcam system captured footage, which was shared with the surrounding community on a public web page. Visitors were able to track construction for the new $185 million library Downtown.
“EarthCam is the most effective and user-friendly webcam service I’ve ever used on any of my projects,” said Carmen Vann, project executive at Turner. “The dashboard made it very easy to share project details and crystal-clear images with team members. EarthCam’s creative team designed a webpage where the community could also access and share high resolution pictures and they loved watching the construction progress.”
At the completion of the project, EarthCam Time-Lapse specialists pored over the nearly 77,000 archived images captured during the construction process for the 497,652-square-foot building. The images were hand-edited from over 48,000 hours of documented footage and coordinated with custom music to create a cinematic time-lapse movie, showcasing more than two years of construction progress in just 80 seconds
